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Code 6
Harper Lee Prize winner and New York Times bestselling author James Grippando returns with a bold new thriller that asks at what price do we open our lives to Big Data.
Aspiring playwright, Kate Gamble, is struggling to launch a script she's been secretly researching her entire life, mostly at the family dinner table. Her father is Christian Gamble, CEO of Buck Technologies, a private data integration company whose clients include the CIA and virtually every counter-terrorism organization in the Western World. Kate's father adores her, and a play about the dark side of Big Data would be the ultimate betrayal in his eyes. But Kate is compelled to tell this story--not only as an artist exploring the personal information catastrophe that affects us all, but as a daughter trying to understand her mother's apparent loss of purpose, made even more disturbing by the suicide note she left behind: I did it for Kate.
Then Patrick Battle comes back into her life, changing everything she has ever thought about her play, her father, and her mother's tragic death. Patrick is a childhood friend, but he is now Buck's golden boy with security clearance to the company's most sensitive projects. When Buck comes under investigation by the Justice Department and Patrick suddenly goes missing, Kate doesn't know who to trust. A phone call confirms her worst nightmare: Patrick has been kidnapped, and the ransom demand is Code 6--the most secret and potentially dangerous technology her father's company has ever developed.
Kate's fight to bring Patrick home safely reveals a conspiracy and cover up that may implicate one of the most powerful executives in the tech industry, while the development of Kate's play unleashes family secrets and the demons behind her mother's cryptic final note. The two paths converge in explosive fashion, leading to a shocking and terrifying discovery that puts Kate and Patrick in the crosshairs of forces who will stop at nothing to control Code 6.
Aspiring playwright, Kate Gamble, is struggling to launch a script she's been secretly researching her entire life, mostly at the family dinner table. Her father is Christian Gamble, CEO of Buck Technologies, a private data integration company whose clients include the CIA and virtually every counter-terrorism organization in the Western World. Kate's father adores her, and a play about the dark side of Big Data would be the ultimate betrayal in his eyes. But Kate is compelled to tell this story--not only as an artist exploring the personal information catastrophe that affects us all, but as a daughter trying to understand her mother's apparent loss of purpose, made even more disturbing by the suicide note she left behind: I did it for Kate.
Then Patrick Battle comes back into her life, changing everything she has ever thought about her play, her father, and her mother's tragic death. Patrick is a childhood friend, but he is now Buck's golden boy with security clearance to the company's most sensitive projects. When Buck comes under investigation by the Justice Department and Patrick suddenly goes missing, Kate doesn't know who to trust. A phone call confirms her worst nightmare: Patrick has been kidnapped, and the ransom demand is Code 6--the most secret and potentially dangerous technology her father's company has ever developed.
Kate's fight to bring Patrick home safely reveals a conspiracy and cover up that may implicate one of the most powerful executives in the tech industry, while the development of Kate's play unleashes family secrets and the demons behind her mother's cryptic final note. The two paths converge in explosive fashion, leading to a shocking and terrifying discovery that puts Kate and Patrick in the crosshairs of forces who will stop at nothing to control Code 6.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published January 3, 2023
290 people are currently reading
4719 people want to read
About the author
James Grippando
50 books1,177 followers The first thing you should know about bestselling author James Grippando is that he is no longer clueless—or so they say, after “A James Grippando Novel” was a clue for #38 Across in the New York Times crossword puzzle. James is the winner of the Harper Lee Prize for legal fiction and a New York Times bestselling author with more than 30 novels to his credit, including the popular series featuring Miami criminal defense attorney Jack Swyteck. His latest, "Goodbye Girl" (HarperCollins 2024), is the 18th in the Swyteck series. His novels are enjoyed worldwide in 28 languages. As an adjunct professor he teaches "The Law & Lawyers in Modern Literature" at the University of Miami School of Law. He is also counsel at one of the nation’s leading law firms, where he specializes in entertainment and intellectual property law, representing clients who have won more than 40 Tony Awards. He writes in south Florida with Atlas at his side, a faithful golden retriever who has no idea he’s a dog.
Series:
* Jack Swyteck
Series:
* Jack Swyteck
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 249 reviews
December 16, 2024
Grippando is known mostly for his Jack Swyteck series. This is a stand-alone novel, in which the author takes us into the world of Big Data through the eyes of a young playwright.
Christian Gamble, a CEO of a high-tech company wants his daughter Kate to become part of their legal team when she finishes law school, but Kate wants to devote her life to writing. As Kate’s play gets the attention of a director and playwright, her mother allegedly kills herself. Her husband, and Kate’s father isn’t looked upon to favorably especially when he is accused of having an affair with one of his co-workers who is now imprisoned. Will Kate be expected to work at her father’s firm anyway?
Is there a connection between Kate’s play and what happened with her mother and the imprisonment of her father’s alleged lover, Sandra? And, what exactly is Code 6? And, why and who is kidnapping Kate’s co-worker, Patrick?
As readers reflect about all that is happening, they are thrust in the midst of a mystery of both historical and present-day misuses of Big Data and global implications. Thus, leading readers to wonder what happens when Big Data is in the hands of governments or private companies?
There is a lot going on in this complex, sometimes imperfect page-turner. But even if the plot may seem overworked, it really is the multi-layered characters who seem to help the story along. Still, with this author, you might prefer his Swyteck series best.
3.5 stars
Christian Gamble, a CEO of a high-tech company wants his daughter Kate to become part of their legal team when she finishes law school, but Kate wants to devote her life to writing. As Kate’s play gets the attention of a director and playwright, her mother allegedly kills herself. Her husband, and Kate’s father isn’t looked upon to favorably especially when he is accused of having an affair with one of his co-workers who is now imprisoned. Will Kate be expected to work at her father’s firm anyway?
Is there a connection between Kate’s play and what happened with her mother and the imprisonment of her father’s alleged lover, Sandra? And, what exactly is Code 6? And, why and who is kidnapping Kate’s co-worker, Patrick?
As readers reflect about all that is happening, they are thrust in the midst of a mystery of both historical and present-day misuses of Big Data and global implications. Thus, leading readers to wonder what happens when Big Data is in the hands of governments or private companies?
There is a lot going on in this complex, sometimes imperfect page-turner. But even if the plot may seem overworked, it really is the multi-layered characters who seem to help the story along. Still, with this author, you might prefer his Swyteck series best.
3.5 stars
January 21, 2023
**Thanks to Goodreads and HarperCollins for providing me with this copy**
This is my first James Grippando novel and I enjoyed the read! Time to start reading his other novels!!
This is my first James Grippando novel and I enjoyed the read! Time to start reading his other novels!!
February 25, 2023
I’ve read all of James Grippando’s books. They were all 4-5 ratings. This one, barely a 3. His main character, Jack Swytek, has been in almost all of his books. This is a standalone novel that wasn’t enjoyable. The characters were not likable and the storyline was confusing.
I highly recommend the books featuring Swytek, you won’t be disappointed!
I highly recommend the books featuring Swytek, you won’t be disappointed!
July 11, 2023
it was a bit confusing but i was definitely distracted while reading it and not wholly focused on it, so that might’ve been part of it. some of it was too much to follow all at once. in the end a lot of the pieces fell into place but overall it was a little slow before the climax and resolution. it was also a bit of whiplash to go from one chapter being patrick being stuck in south america kidnapped by drug lords and trying to escape back to kate whining about her play and other insignificant things. kate wasn’t someone i was really rooting for, she was very self absorbed and seemed to try to virtue signal against nepotism all the whilst reaping the benefits of it with her cushy job at her father’s company along with her negotiations to try to get patrick back.
January 7, 2023
James Grippando steps away from his highly-successful Jack Swyteck series to prove why he is one of the best thrillers writers in the game with the release of his latest novel, the stand-alone entitled CODE 6. It is a deep-diving, scathing look at the world of big data through the eyes of a young playwright caught up in the travails of the family business.
Christian Gamble is the CEO of Buck Technologies while attempting to groom his daughter, Kate, to becoming a new addition to their legal team once she finishes Law School. The only issue is that Kate’s real love is writing and she currently has a play that was selected for review by a famous Director and Playwright with the potential of having her work produced by him.
Both Christian and Kate’s plans will be side-swept in a large way when Kate’s mother allegedly commits suicide by leaping off the balcony of their high-rise apartment building. The supposed suicide note from Elizabeth Gamble ends with the line: “I did it for Kate.” Christian immediately comes under scrutiny, even though he was away on a business trip at the time of the incident. The lead Detective keeps going back to a 911 call from a few years earlier where Elizabeth claimed spousal abuse at the hands of her husband. She also accused her husband at that time of having an affair with a co-worker of his, the now imprisoned Sandra Levy.
Even though Kate Gamble understands that Sandra Levy did NOT have an affair with her father and that her imprisonment had nothing to do with Christian either, she is still having difficulty processing her mother’s thought pattern at both taking her own life and leaving that cryptic note. Meanwhile, she reluctantly comes aboard as a Legal Intern with Buck Technologies while not giving up on her own dreams. The Director Irving Bass who reviewed and initially attacked her play, admits he was in a bad place and is planning to go into rehab. Prior to that, he wants to meet with Kate because he desires to develop the idea she had for her play to make it a viable piece he can produce and stage for her.
Ironically, her play deals with the origins of ‘big data’ and how the information taken from it can be misused with a focus on the 1930’s IBM Hollerith D-eleven card sorting machine. More specifically, her play is now intent on portraying the role this machine played in drawing the census data that Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party used to identify and later exterminate over six million Jews during the WWII Holocaust. It sounds like a winner of an idea, but the comparisons to information that Buck Technologies may have been misusing comes to light in shocking ways during her tenure there.
On her first day of employment she meets a fellow co-worker named Patrick Battle, a young man she used to babysit for. He inadvertently breaches company protocol by mentioning the name of a project he was working on and immediately regrets it. Fearing that he might get fired for this misdeed, Patrick is instead approved for a corporate retreat in a far-away jungle in Columbia. What seems like a corporate white-collar adventure turns into a nightmare when Patrick disappears from his group and is kidnapped. A ransom is sent shortly thereafter to Christian at Buck demanding the Code 6 technology for his safe return. Code 6, often thought to be a myth, is the deadliest tech that Buck has ever created and in the wrong hands could do damage the equivalent of that which was covered in Kate’s play about the Hollerith sorting card machine.
Kate feels responsible for Patrick and goes to meet with Sandra Levy in prison to find out what exactly she went away for and if it has anything to do with Code 6. Christian does not want to deal with terrorists, but also cannot afford the negative publicity or exposure if something were to happened to Patrick and Code 6 was revealed to the world anyway. Grippando keeps a lot of balls in the air during CODE 6 and the action is pretty much non-stop. What really drives this novel are the characters --- fully fleshed-out, real, and complex throughout --- and you cannot stop by feel and root for Kate Gamble every step of the way right up to the stunning conclusion.
Reviewed by Ray Palen for Book Reporter
Christian Gamble is the CEO of Buck Technologies while attempting to groom his daughter, Kate, to becoming a new addition to their legal team once she finishes Law School. The only issue is that Kate’s real love is writing and she currently has a play that was selected for review by a famous Director and Playwright with the potential of having her work produced by him.
Both Christian and Kate’s plans will be side-swept in a large way when Kate’s mother allegedly commits suicide by leaping off the balcony of their high-rise apartment building. The supposed suicide note from Elizabeth Gamble ends with the line: “I did it for Kate.” Christian immediately comes under scrutiny, even though he was away on a business trip at the time of the incident. The lead Detective keeps going back to a 911 call from a few years earlier where Elizabeth claimed spousal abuse at the hands of her husband. She also accused her husband at that time of having an affair with a co-worker of his, the now imprisoned Sandra Levy.
Even though Kate Gamble understands that Sandra Levy did NOT have an affair with her father and that her imprisonment had nothing to do with Christian either, she is still having difficulty processing her mother’s thought pattern at both taking her own life and leaving that cryptic note. Meanwhile, she reluctantly comes aboard as a Legal Intern with Buck Technologies while not giving up on her own dreams. The Director Irving Bass who reviewed and initially attacked her play, admits he was in a bad place and is planning to go into rehab. Prior to that, he wants to meet with Kate because he desires to develop the idea she had for her play to make it a viable piece he can produce and stage for her.
Ironically, her play deals with the origins of ‘big data’ and how the information taken from it can be misused with a focus on the 1930’s IBM Hollerith D-eleven card sorting machine. More specifically, her play is now intent on portraying the role this machine played in drawing the census data that Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party used to identify and later exterminate over six million Jews during the WWII Holocaust. It sounds like a winner of an idea, but the comparisons to information that Buck Technologies may have been misusing comes to light in shocking ways during her tenure there.
On her first day of employment she meets a fellow co-worker named Patrick Battle, a young man she used to babysit for. He inadvertently breaches company protocol by mentioning the name of a project he was working on and immediately regrets it. Fearing that he might get fired for this misdeed, Patrick is instead approved for a corporate retreat in a far-away jungle in Columbia. What seems like a corporate white-collar adventure turns into a nightmare when Patrick disappears from his group and is kidnapped. A ransom is sent shortly thereafter to Christian at Buck demanding the Code 6 technology for his safe return. Code 6, often thought to be a myth, is the deadliest tech that Buck has ever created and in the wrong hands could do damage the equivalent of that which was covered in Kate’s play about the Hollerith sorting card machine.
Kate feels responsible for Patrick and goes to meet with Sandra Levy in prison to find out what exactly she went away for and if it has anything to do with Code 6. Christian does not want to deal with terrorists, but also cannot afford the negative publicity or exposure if something were to happened to Patrick and Code 6 was revealed to the world anyway. Grippando keeps a lot of balls in the air during CODE 6 and the action is pretty much non-stop. What really drives this novel are the characters --- fully fleshed-out, real, and complex throughout --- and you cannot stop by feel and root for Kate Gamble every step of the way right up to the stunning conclusion.
Reviewed by Ray Palen for Book Reporter
October 17, 2024
I was pleasantly surprised by this book. At first, the main girl being a bad playwright was just annoying me (as a theatre student who is literally taking a playwriting class right now, she was very pretentious with her writing) I thought this story was just going to be about her overcoming some challenges with her plays but no. It was way more than that. Like a whole other wacky plot that I just was not expecting at all! It fell a little short in some areas for me, just something about the main girl really threw me off. She was just annoying, I’m sorry! Overall, a nice read. 6/10
November 4, 2023
Listened to on chapter a day. So so. Though the info on the Holerath (sp?) machine was an eye opener.
February 13, 2023
I really enjoy this writer's Jack Swyteck series but I'm afraid I didn't care for this stand-alone. It does take place in the DMV area which I liked b/c that's where I'm from so I was familiar w/the locations. But the story revolves around data & cybersecurity which doesn't interest me too much.
I also wasn't a big fan of the characters.
I also wasn't a big fan of the characters.
March 27, 2023
An absolutely captivating mystery but hard to follow at times. There were so many sub-plots feeding into the main plots, with so many twists & turns that I had to rewind at times to figure out how we had gotten to where we are. However, it all came together nicely in the end… like lots of small roots feeding into each other and growing into one strong trunk.
July 15, 2023
I liked the book but honestly it felt a bit all over the place. A play-write who’s also in school to be a lawyer. Daughter of a tech mogul and I can’t remember what her mom does. Then there are Colombian drug and human traffickers that are somehow involved with the Chinese?? Or maybe I’ve got that wrong? Honestly I’m not sure how those tied together.. the CIA is mixed in, but still the play-write is the one who ends up going to Columbia to retrieve her friend and now man whom she used to babysit (Patrick)…
Then there’s this whole side story about her play that has to do with technology and the holocaust.. it’s like the author was trying to mirror what was going on in her current life, but it felt intense and an unnecessary side story to me.. I just kept wondering how Kate was also re-writing this play in the midst of all this kidnapping, espionage plot and the very recent death of her mother… idk it just felt like a lot.
There’s also another story line about a previous person who is in prison for espionage and trying to steal this same tech, but she won’t talk ab it with anyone and now the CIA is opening an investigation to make sure the company isn’t vulnerable to blackmail or something like that which is what prompts Buck Technologies to send Patrick to Columbia (also, Columbia?? please why would a tech company send their most promising young employee here??? It makes zero sense.) but the CIA investigator is Kate’s ex-boyfriend… unnecessary and confusing on all fronts, but I think it was done so that the author could get Kate more information than she should’ve had as a person only connected to the company by blood and not working for it even in a related sense.
That being said I did like Kate. She was a strong character and didn’t need to rely on a man to help, however, I truly don’t understand why she was the go to person for all of this. Yes her father owned the company, Buck Technologies and the kidnappers wanted some proprietary tech from them, but Kate didn’t have access to that tech and the kidnappers with their own face recognition software to get all the information they could want ab this person who literally fell into their laps (Patrick) would be able to figure this out. Then everything with the kidnappers gets flipped on it’s head. I don’t know how many times Patrick switched bad guy hands.. they just kept killing each other… see what I mean about confusing. I just kind of went along with it and that made it easy. Just accepting everything at face value, but going back and trying to explain is where I get extremely tripped up. It was a good book to read, but don’t know if I’ll be recommending it to anyone.
Then there’s this whole side story about her play that has to do with technology and the holocaust.. it’s like the author was trying to mirror what was going on in her current life, but it felt intense and an unnecessary side story to me.. I just kept wondering how Kate was also re-writing this play in the midst of all this kidnapping, espionage plot and the very recent death of her mother… idk it just felt like a lot.
There’s also another story line about a previous person who is in prison for espionage and trying to steal this same tech, but she won’t talk ab it with anyone and now the CIA is opening an investigation to make sure the company isn’t vulnerable to blackmail or something like that which is what prompts Buck Technologies to send Patrick to Columbia (also, Columbia?? please why would a tech company send their most promising young employee here??? It makes zero sense.) but the CIA investigator is Kate’s ex-boyfriend… unnecessary and confusing on all fronts, but I think it was done so that the author could get Kate more information than she should’ve had as a person only connected to the company by blood and not working for it even in a related sense.
That being said I did like Kate. She was a strong character and didn’t need to rely on a man to help, however, I truly don’t understand why she was the go to person for all of this. Yes her father owned the company, Buck Technologies and the kidnappers wanted some proprietary tech from them, but Kate didn’t have access to that tech and the kidnappers with their own face recognition software to get all the information they could want ab this person who literally fell into their laps (Patrick) would be able to figure this out. Then everything with the kidnappers gets flipped on it’s head. I don’t know how many times Patrick switched bad guy hands.. they just kept killing each other… see what I mean about confusing. I just kind of went along with it and that made it easy. Just accepting everything at face value, but going back and trying to explain is where I get extremely tripped up. It was a good book to read, but don’t know if I’ll be recommending it to anyone.
June 14, 2025
3.5 rounded up to four stars. Overall, this book held my interest from beginning to end. But I did have to buy into a few things that seemed a little far-fetched. I also thought the inclusion of the play the main character was writing could have been left out. It did not add to the story. This book is about the daughter of a tech CEO who finds herself involved with a kidnapping and hidden code for a CIA driven application that draws personal information from Americans. Strangely enough, that concept was not the far-fetched part of the book. With so many details of our personal lives out on the web, from social media to medical information, It’s only a matter of time before someone figures out how to harvest it and use it in ways that are both good and evil. Overall, this was a fast paced interesting novel with a scary element predicting our future.
April 15, 2024
I will admit that I despise books about psychopaths and sociopaths because I do not need the reminder that there are a lot of terrible people in the world who want to harm people for no particularly good reason, so I am not a fan of this book on any personal level. However, I can concede that it is a well written thriller that keeps you engaged and guessing at what will happen next, so I understand that fans of the thriller genre will find a lot to appreciate. I also appreciate the use of the play within the novel to fit in more historical information and context than would otherwise easily fit into the story. But I don’t think the story did a good enough job of explaining all of the stakes to make the extreme actions the characters were willing to take emotionally resonate with me.
September 30, 2024
This is another series that is full of action and adventure. This one is about an aspiring playwright struggleing to make her way in the theater. She has a script based on her family business. Her father is the CEO of Buck Technologies, a private data integration company whose clients include the CIA and virtually every counter-terrorism organization in the Western World. Based on that, you know there is going to be a great plot!
So, everyone wants the company has and everyone is after it. The Justice Department is investigating both Buck and Kate's father when all hell breaks loose.
Twisty with a great cast of characters and so worth the read.
5 stars
Happy Reading!
July 4, 2023
I really enjoyed the book’s introduction and the details about IBM and WWII. How much of that is true, I’ll need to research, but tying together the Holocaust with modern Big Data was thought provoking, and left me wanting to know more.
The plot, however, felt lacking. The end of the book turned into an episode of 24 with good guys and bad guys shooting at each other with only 5 minutes left in the episode—rushed. By the end of the book, I thought, “oh, that’s it? That was sudden.”
Interesting, but won’t recommend. The swearing was a turn off, as well.
The plot, however, felt lacking. The end of the book turned into an episode of 24 with good guys and bad guys shooting at each other with only 5 minutes left in the episode—rushed. By the end of the book, I thought, “oh, that’s it? That was sudden.”
Interesting, but won’t recommend. The swearing was a turn off, as well.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 4, 2023
First time reading James Grippando. I don't know how I missed this author who knows how to write a great thriller. I liked that the main character is a smart young woman who is trying to write a play about how the Nazis used technology (the punchcard computer system) in their destruction of the Jewish people. She is at odds with her wealthy business executive father who tries to control her life. The novel has a play within it and the format works well to carry the two main plot lines about the CIA and its use/abuse of technology. Excellent entertainment. I will definitely read more of this author. This is his 30th book.
March 23, 2024
Published in 2023 and the April read for my adult book club.
This multi-threaded fictional story weavers a tale of historical fact, antisemitism, sex trafficking, espionage, and the threat of todays “big data” on our present and future lives within the premise of a budding playwright.
Birth the time as a read or a listen. I chose the audio book and the narrator did a good job.
This multi-threaded fictional story weavers a tale of historical fact, antisemitism, sex trafficking, espionage, and the threat of todays “big data” on our present and future lives within the premise of a budding playwright.
Birth the time as a read or a listen. I chose the audio book and the narrator did a good job.
Read
January 16, 2023Good story, interesting plot on big data, easy reading. The backdrop was interesting; I remember IBM was involved with machines that were used for census taking but was not aware of the connection with Nazi Germany
February 26, 2023
Great read, definitely makes me want to live like the Amish though😂😂
March 4, 2023
I was not expecting the WWII connection in this novel and it fascinated me. We think big data is new, but it clearly is not. A must read.
4.5 Stars
4.5 Stars
May 2, 2023
Horrendous
November 2, 2023
Fast Action
I picked a book because I was hoping it would be lots of action and intrigue. It was!
I enjoy the plot it moves so fast it’s been a one day read.
I highly recommend.
I picked a book because I was hoping it would be lots of action and intrigue. It was!
I enjoy the plot it moves so fast it’s been a one day read.
I highly recommend.
February 5, 2024
A suave technothriller about how big tech is evil. Funny that state secrets can't fall into enemy hands, whereas my previous read To Sing of War relied on a plotline of giving the Russians info on making an atomic bomb for world peace. Very well written, I liked the playwriting subplot, bit of a lacklustre ending maybe but bodies certainly do hit the floor for some surprises.
July 28, 2025
I don’t usually read books like this. I enjoyed it. Fast paced. Entertaining. Scary to think about the reality of it- past, present and future.
August 27, 2025
Not my usual pick, but I enjoyed it. Big data meets big government — timely and thought-provoking.
December 23, 2022
Code 6 by James Grippando is an interesting thriller that keeps you guessing just who did it.
This story is about Kate and her family. Kate is writing a play and while researching she finds out some interesting information. The information that she finds is still used today and someone wants it. She can't help but compare what she is writing with what is going on at her dad's company. This story shows just want someone will go through to get something they want.
This story is an interesting read and shows just how valuable something could be. It is a quick paced book that you want to keep reading.
Highly recommend for fans of thrillers and James Grippando.
This story is about Kate and her family. Kate is writing a play and while researching she finds out some interesting information. The information that she finds is still used today and someone wants it. She can't help but compare what she is writing with what is going on at her dad's company. This story shows just want someone will go through to get something they want.
This story is an interesting read and shows just how valuable something could be. It is a quick paced book that you want to keep reading.
Highly recommend for fans of thrillers and James Grippando.
January 6, 2023
I think I will stick to the Jack Swytek series. This stand alone book was all over the place.
Kate Gamble, daughter of a billionaire tech guru wants to be a playwright. She has been working on one for years subject being the use of IBM data cards during the Holocaust while also finishing school to be a lawyer.
Next is her mother's suicide and her hunt for the truth of what happened all the while redoing her play with renowned playwright Bass and moving into an office at her father's company after graduation. An ex-boyfriend is tasked with auditing the firm (Buck Technologies) to be sure there are no leaks and another friend disappears in Columbia South America. She tries to help both.
Again, it was all over the place and I was hoping it would get better. It didn't.
Kate Gamble, daughter of a billionaire tech guru wants to be a playwright. She has been working on one for years subject being the use of IBM data cards during the Holocaust while also finishing school to be a lawyer.
Next is her mother's suicide and her hunt for the truth of what happened all the while redoing her play with renowned playwright Bass and moving into an office at her father's company after graduation. An ex-boyfriend is tasked with auditing the firm (Buck Technologies) to be sure there are no leaks and another friend disappears in Columbia South America. She tries to help both.
Again, it was all over the place and I was hoping it would get better. It didn't.
March 27, 2023
I read to chapter 12 and had no desire to continue. A storyline and characters that I find not interesting or intelligent or make sense in the way it was headed. Kate, while headed home in a chauffeured limousine encounters a road block, she is told by a police officer to follow the crowd to get to her building, which is the same building her alcoholic mother had taken a jump/fall from whatever floor, when she goes to identify the body, looking at only one hand, she pulls out a bottle of nail polish and wants to paint her nails to bring back some childhood memory. Her father calls her on her way home and she answers the phone “hi Dad, what’s up”, really, she sounds about 10 years old. I am seeing a lot of holes, seems she would have been stopped and not allowed in a building without being questioned, identifying a body by a hand without any identifying tattoos, scars. What if it wasn’t her mother? And then that phone call, I realized most likely the rest of the book was going to continue in some similar fashion and quit.
March 20, 2023
Rather dull book focused on the threat from digital invasions of privacy. As part of the coverup, a key employee is sent to the country in Columbia, where there is an attempt on his life and then kidnapped. His friend, lawyer and playwright Kate, seeks to help the employee gain his freedom. A significant part of the plot is a rehash of Grippando's play regarding Thomas Watson, who sold computers to Nazi Germany, and how these computers were used to faciliate the Holocaust. I found the story dreary and never connected with any of the characters. The dialogue was bland. Grippando has written better books than this.
October 8, 2023
This was entirely too bloated for the straightforward plot it contained. Big data, espionage, backstabbing, corporate infighting, all sounds exciting, but it really wasn't. The Patrick sections were so unimportant, and the play parts felt the same way, I get it, allegory, metaphor, history repeating itself, that doesn't leave much else to this novel, and there wasn't.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 249 reviews